View full sizeJohn O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerGov. Chris Christie delivers the keynote speech at the Republican National Contention tonight in Tampa, Fla.

Hunterdon Republicans are praising Gov. Chris Christie for the keynote speech he gave Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

“I thought it was an excellent speech,” Susan Miller of Raritan Township, a longtime Republican activist on the county level, said Wednesday.

“He made a lot of good points. It was typical of him and typical of New Jersey: he put our own ‘twist’ on it, so people knew he was from New Jersey.”

Another Raritan resident, Helen LaRue, was equally enthused after seeing the governor talk.

“I thought it was very good, he tells in like it is. We’re very fortune to have a good governor. I think you’ll be seeing him run for another post” higher up that leading the state.

“I think you will see him (moving) further ahead, up, very shortly,” she said of Christie. She is excited about “what’s he has done for New Jersey and for Hunterdon County, and the attitude he has.”

“We’re very fortunate to have him” as governor but expect him to seek a national position, she said.

But not every Hunterdon member of the GOP thought the speech was so great.

“It was all about him, nothing about the Republican party or about Romney or Ryan,” said Louis Carl Reiner of Raritan Township.

“I would support him against any Democrat, but I’m a Lonegan guy,” explained Reiner. Steven Lonegan, a conservative Republican, ran in the party’s primary for governor in 2009, losing to Christie.

According to Reiner, Christie “took credit for doing so much in New Jersey” that others had done.

“I wished that he would have stuck to the purpose" (of speaking), he said, “and pumped up Congressman Ryan and Governor Romney.”

“I did listen very intently to what he took credit for, and in my opinion, it’s not accurate.”

Miller, LaRue and Reiner are all active in the Republican party locally and serve as party committee members representing their districts in Raritan Township.

For county Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl, who could not be reached Wednesday for comment, it’s his 10th national convention. He is one of New Jersey’s voting delegates.

He watched Christie in Tampa as the state’s longest-serving county chairman, and he’s believed to hold that honor nationally, too.

Kuhl has lots of reasons to remember past conventions. In 1972, he was a key supporter of adding more popularly elected delegates for future conventions, he has said. And in 1980, he made the motion in the New Jersey caucus to support George H.W. Bush as Ronald Reagan’s vice presidential nominee.